Monthly Archives: September 2021

Cassini-Huygens

Here there was unity A world bound by curiosity.
Seventeen nations held by a vision of clarity
a sole desire pursued with renewed intensity
to see the obscure and seize the great opportunity
of viewing Saturn in its turmoil and tranquility.
It was the ideal love, respect, purpose, humility
the edge of science honed by aeons of ability
to grasp and subdue the sovereign intangibility.
Witness their labor their unwavered solidarity
passions lit like fire raging flames of curiosity
lighting hallowed halls with candles of virtuosity
burn them to wick ends to find the buried prosperity
create divine eyes to see beyond our perplexity.
The passion they had matched only by their tenacity
contemporaries became friends, family, fortuity
they shared in triumph and suffered failures with dignity
overcame so much in the name of secularity
to but sacrifice their scientific commodity.
Though it dies in space it will live throughout eternity
and thus it was launched with some modest publicity.

In ninety-seven Cassini set out with surety
Saturn would be reached and captured in high fidelity
with purposeful stops, choreographed uniformity.
It found Venus twice in all its prehensibility
to latch on tightly and harvest the planets gravity
once and once again leveraging familiarity
searching for lightning any signs of electricity
testing instruments to ensure long term integrity
measuring plasma and the airglow for posterity.
Earth and moon were next despite fears of instability
and then Marsursky an asteroid of immensity
found in eighty-one seen only through spontaneity.
The great Jupiter that overwhelming enormity
turmoilstuous clouds encircling that monstrosity
taking its profile celebrating its complexity
measuring the winds in all their immutability.
Last came the long dark four years of hypermobility,
settling in void with silent sobered sanguinity.
Stars in stark contrast pin points in fugue nebulosity
alone in the cold searching through darkness for amity.
Solace in silence drowned the machine in sobriety
the oppressive calm an inerradicability
but once given time they embraced extensionality.
Together they flew the dynamic confraternity
course predetermined with distance into banality
cradled in abyss benign alienability
become familiar discover comfortability
while hearts and minds wait honoring its domesticity;
proud patient parents full up with sentimentality
bonded evermore in the silent longanimity
quieting their fears of possible fallibility
with kind words shared and the breakthroughs palpability
four years of darkness ventured against vulnerability.
Anticipation At last overcame ubiquity.

Once Saturn was reached they caught its supernormality
in countless photos of its beautiful tangibility
Five moons in contrast expressed abstract linearity
Ribbons of shadow breaking surface contiguity
Sirens of Titan Huygens pulled by volubility
to land amongst bone celebrating insularity
Brave Odysseus in cycloptic impudicity
Dione sliced in two a violent show of paternity
Ice expressed as song with organic sensuality
A fractured diamond forced water in volcanicity
A storm in the north with swirls of ignitability
The dance of Janus subtle motions of duplicity
The black and white of Iapetus’ duality
Crystal palaces exuding fantasticality
The broken fingers, Prometheus’ naivety
Soft geometry moving in strange uniformity
The odd shape of Pan rightly playful with absurdity
Coral like structures Hyperion’s abnormality
All Saturn exposed transcendental luminosity,
lofty origins decades later met profundity
Earth smiled from afar at Cassini’s equanimity.
Embrace the dense clouds enter into immortality;
sleep now with the gods.

The Diving Bell

The only thing that puts me at ease
in this angry red glow;
broken hearted pleas
from a past cast as shadow
“Please
don’t go.”

Broken hearted pleas
from a past cast as shadow
pontificated from bent knees
a gesture I thought then was hollow
“Please
don’t go.”

Pontificated from bent knees
a gesture I thought then was hollow
over and over I press the keys
playing old words on a recorded photo
“Please
don’t go.”

Over and over I press the keys
playing old words on a recorded photo;
it’s all that matters at times like these
the water crushing you countless miles below
“Please
don’t go.”

Anniversary

Twenty years ago the two towers fell
The terrorist attack of nine eleven.
Forced to reconcile a new kind of hell
Sending all those poor souls off to “heaven.”
The world witnessed these events horrified
I saw the change coming. For that I cried.

The terrorist attack of nine eleven
Set us against many other nations
As if that would find the problem leavened
Rather than drown us in complications.
Almost three thousand died in the attack;
We’ve spent two decades now getting them back.

Sending all those poor souls off to “heaven”
Continues to be our bread and butter
With blackwater in two thousand seven
Countless others that would cause a shutter
And all the young people we sacrificed
Those lives that congress has precisely priced.

The world witnessed these events, horrified
As we tore nations and families apart
Our grief and rage could never be subdued
Few ever examined the exposed heart
Killing people often creates profit
An angry public will welcome the deposit

I saw the change coming. For that, I cried.
It was hard to watch those people burning,
Worse knowing that day that more than they had died.
The attack was a desperate yearning
To be given respect on the world stage
But instead we bred terror for the coming age.

Siren’s Call

An old sign hangs disheveled off the brick wall
broken neon tubes that spell out, “Siren’s Call”
one of two steel bars still screaming, “please, don’t fall!”

The bricks bleed rust down the side of the building
as if more than mortar was used for their melding
mineral substrate to match the signs welding.

The doors below rot in a weak wooden frame
years of struggle have warped them in knotted shame
discarded pallets no one wants to claim.

Once there were souls that lived behind those old doors
warm embers to subdue the cold bricked in core
but there is no life in that place anymore.

Propped on failing beams, it looms over the street
scouring at all the faces it might meet,
those lost vagabonds cast astray at its feet.

Daylight overwhelms the chaotic city
the sun, arousing beauty from the gritty,
would never touch those bricks, though moved by pity.

They found comfort only in the nights embrace
the moon and the stars having a softer face,
evening found this menace to be a sad place.

In the darkness those hidden lights would turn on
some stammered prophecy of the coming dawn
as if ashamed that its life had long since gone.

Fracture : Absolved

Find hands hidden in darkness to clasp tightly
fingers collaborating on a rhythm
Forgotten forms awake shining brightly
forging ahead with their own algorithm
forced to light all these things we find unsightly
fracturing the spectrum as would a prism
folding luminosity impolitely
founding between the light and dark a schism.

“Are you broken?” one will ask filled with concern
advancing further in the fragmentation
abstractions of color all they can discern
“Adventures are journeys with cracked foundations
ardent intentions will find intent returned.”
Approaching closer they refuse cessation
accepting each other as a lesson learned
and ascending to their annihilation.

Shelter

Find solace anywhere you can
we are like thatched roofs in the wind
shelter, desperate to be pinned
but permanence was not the plan
when it was that our life began
years dilute, our futures are thinned
expressed as a threat to rescind
our talents, health and life span.

So nail those stray threads down
with whatever you find
because the storm is here
and an unstable crown
often topples the mind
when great turmoil appears.

Six Tenets

One should always communicate honestly
One should always be humble
One should always treat others with respect
One should always act with passion
One should always be thorough

Pursue love with intentions that are thoughtful
Give what you request of love with respect
Let love given find you humbled
Bind your love tightly with honesty
Let the love you share be thorough
Fill the spaces between with passion.

Should you serve as a mentor, be humble
Provide guidance and feedback honestly
Gift your knowledge as well as your passion
and when you do, ensure you are thorough
Embrace all criticism thoughtfully
Find growth in the soil of mutual respect.

Find success hidden amongst your passions
Tackle all your tasks thoroughly
Your best attribute is honesty
Accept your greatest success humbly
Share the fruits of your labor respectfully
Look on to your next venture thoughtfully.

As you get older, live your life thoroughly
Discover treasures in your buried passions
Adopt the changing world thoughtfully
Overcome challenges respectfully
Let mornings and sunsets keep you humble
Reflect on how you evolved honestly.

Remember to treat your death with respect
Enjoy your history thoughtfully
Prepare those that you love thoroughly
Express your death as life lived passionately
Enjoy the end in its honesty
Die with a life that leaves others humbled.

Love yourself with humble honesty
Love others with thoughtful passion
Love life thoroughly and with respect.

Defeated

The voracious void just kept coming
form folding over the rotting room
swallowing swollen husks of failing furniture
until undulations of wood and plaster play
like lively school kids riled rabid
and all I could do was watch

spell bound
such a fluid motion
progressing without sound
with intent and notion
consuming all it found.

Choking Hazard

Those dark hands ever questing for my throat
they find their bonds and break them
gliding accross the skin like an anecdote
whispered words of maligned memories
transcend crescendo unto grievous guttural notes
bursting through the ears and crashing through the skull
driving my sense of self into places most remote
their sole purpose met as I cower condemned
seeking refuge behind all the words I wrote.